BACKSTAGE: NEA chief's visit boosts arts agenda

Sunday

Landesman, the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, did something that locals have been trying to do for some time now when he kicked off his national Art Works Tour in Peoria on Friday.

Will Rocco Landesman's visit be remembered as a catalyst?

Or as just another spark that goes out?

Landesman, the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, did something that locals have been trying to do for some time now when he kicked off his national Art Works Tour in Peoria on Friday.

Namely, gather a good cross section of artists and art supporters - from theater people to dancers, from sculptors to glass blowers, from developers to city government officials, from business leaders to professors - all in one room. Not once, but twice: Once at a roundtable at a Civic Center conference room and again at a WTVP-TV, Channel 47, studio. We're talking well over 100 people total.

When you get lots of people with similar issues and interests together in one place, some strange things start happening. People start talking to one another - asking questions, looking at the big picture, sensing that they might have political influence.

Landesman himself brought up this point at the WTVP studio meeting. Arts funding and arts education often are the first things to be cut when the economy plummets. Arts people, he said, need to stick together and let public officials know that music, visual art, theater, dance and the like really do matter and can benefit a city's social and economic development.

Eastlight Theatre's Kathy Chitwood - who along with Suzette Boulais of ArtsPartners invited Landesman to town - immediately picked up on the NEA chairman's theme. Describing herself as "shaking" after seeing so many arts people gathered in one place, she issued a challenge:

Start demanding accountability from local government leaders. Where is Peoria or East Peoria or central Illinois' five-year plan for arts and culture? Exactly how are policy makers going to start deliberately weaving the arts into neighborhood and urban planning? When I spoke to Chitwood after the meeting, she noted that local leaders - including Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis - were now on the record talking about how proud they were of the local arts scene and how important the arts are. Let's keep reminding them of those words, Chitwood told me. Let's keep pushing for a seat at the table.

Chitwood may be on to something. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and others have observed that we're moving into a world where brains and creativity count for more than brawn and muscle. Arts are all about creativity: The young person who knows music and technology may well come up with better products and better services than someone who just knows technology or - even worse - has been trained to do routine, easily outsourced tasks.

Leadership at Bradley University and Illinois Central College knows this. So do a number of business and corporate people. Developers such as Pat Sullivan recognize how artists can help depressed areas rebound. Organize these people, and you have a potentially influential lobbying group. ArtsPartners, the city's arts advocacy program, could lead the way.

The key is not a vague platform of community improvement but a specific agenda: Putting more of the arts - visual and otherwise - into the Warehouse District, for example. Or using the arts to reach out to the economically dispossessed in our community. The opportunities are many.

But whatever the agenda, arts people need to act - before Landesman's visit becomes just another distant memory.

Gary Panetta is the fine arts columnist and a critic for the Journal Star. He can be reached at 686-3132 or gpanetta@pjstar.com. Write to him at 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.